I Am Currently So Happy.

current mantra

Jupp, we're getting there.

Still need to get a name for him...

Okay I made a sick sketch

It's tiny (like on the corner of my sketchbook) but I saw that pose and I was thinking like, okay this is EXACTLY how it looks when he uses his quirk so I scribbled down the pose and then drew him.

I want to make that in big. With markers. And maybe even make a background. And hang it on the wall to Kirishima and Denki.

And I was also thinking of something funny. The way he would describe how he fights with his quirk:

I can use my quirk as a weapon. Just think of it ... like a table. A table isn't dangerous, right? Then you accidentally drop something beneath it, try to pick it up and while getting back up you hit your head against the table. Although, it's just a table, it still hurts, right?

(I'm not sure if I'll allow him to reshape his forcefields but if I do, he would add:

Now imagine the table being a spikey pyramid...)

My Artfight attack-card.

Feel free to attack me :D

artfight.net

Art Fight

An art trading game

Also, I realized I haven't posted anything from ArtFight yet.

Well, here's attack No. 1: Spudnick from Catburgerelper

I'm doing an art challange this month with the theme:

Future Fantasy

Figured I could draw one of my OCs again, was looking through old stuff for a specific reference but couldn't find it ... instead found something else and I have another idea. I'm simply going to recycle one of my Undertale OCs who never made it.

And I kinda came up with this:

Here the pic I found of that unused OC:

God, my artstyle back then was something else 😂

Damn, replicating that pose in big was difficult. And the hand! I just couldn't get it right. It finally ended in me doing a second sketch but I kept trying to draw that hand over the old one and got it right but couldn't get it right on the new one. So, I cut it out and laid it on top.

And now, I think this looks so much cooler, that I'll keep the hand drawn on a separate layer.

Okay I made a sick sketch

It's tiny (like on the corner of my sketchbook) but I saw that pose and I was thinking like, okay this is EXACTLY how it looks when he uses his quirk so I scribbled down the pose and then drew him.

I want to make that in big. With markers. And maybe even make a background. And hang it on the wall to Kirishima and Denki.

And I was also thinking of something funny. The way he would describe how he fights with his quirk:

I can use my quirk as a weapon. Just think of it ... like a table. A table isn't dangerous, right? Then you accidentally drop something beneath it, try to pick it up and while getting back up you hit your head against the table. Although, it's just a table, it still hurts, right?

(I'm not sure if I'll allow him to reshape his forcefields but if I do, he would add:

Now imagine the table being a spikey pyramid...)

Tips for writing

I already had another story which I never got to post, since I kept rewriting it into eternity. After forcing myself to take a break from it, I think I finally figured out a way to keep consistently writing a story. So, I thought maybe this post might stumble across a reader who struggles with similar things as I did and I could provide a possible solution without them needing to go through a year and over 10 different versions of a first chapter ending in a failed project. (and admitting that I needed to stop was what hurt the most since I really love the idea I had and maybe I might even try to restart that story, but that's a topic for another post in maybe 2 to 3 years.)

Also Disclaimer: This is only my opinion on the matter and what I figured to be helpful. In the end, it's up to you how you want to write your story and to decide what works for you. I'm just sharing my experiences.

I had a couple of problems which mixed up together until I needed to give up.

First off, I lacked structure. With my first bigger story, I had an idea, a beginning and I knew some major plot points that needed to happen. But what I never knew was when or how the story ended. I just wanted to tell an endless story or figure out an ending on the way. That didn't work for me.

With my current story (which you can check out here, if you're interested) I researched a couple of ways how to structure a story properly. (It was just for fun honestly, but so helpful in the end) I already had, like before a vague idea, and some plot points I wanted to happen. What I did: See if my story would fit into any of these structures and what would happen at which point until the end. And then I found a structure that fit my story (almost) perfectly. After that, I wrote down the plot in bullet points creating my outline for the story.

(Note: Of course, you can take any story structure you find and bend it a little. For example, I decided to go for a three act-structure and decided to skip the introduction part, since I wanted to plunge the reader into the story without heavily explaining what was going on. They would figure it out on the way … )

This means I knew what happened at which moment. And most importantly, I had an ending. Now I had to face my next challenge, fighting my constant urge to rewrite everything. After proceeding with my used-to-way of just writing what comes to my head, I quickly figured out that this wouldn't work. It didn't work earlier and it didn't work now. So, I needed to figure out what was wrong with my approach.

For that, there are multiple options to do so. Either you can ask others for their opinion of what is wrong with your text or try proofreading yourself. I recorded how I read my texts and heard afterwards to the footage while I was reading along (and yes, it sucks hearing your own voice on record, but if you imagine it's another person, it's not that painful anymore, after a while)

Then I had another important realization. I still had no structure in my chapters. The story was now well structured and I knew what I wanted to write the chapter about, but my thoughts were jumping from one thought to another and then back again. To solve this problem, I came up with an approach that still works for me.

Before writing the chapter, I think about what I want to happen in this chapter. For example, in my current story, I needed to introduce the two main characters and they needed to meet. I also wanted to hide some hints on backstory and needed to write about the event that starts the entire story. With that in mind, I just start loosely writing down what comes to my mind. It doesn't matter if it's good or not, since I'm going to rewrite it later on. Once I come to a point, where I completed all of my goals for that chapter, I take what I wrote down and structure the plot into bullet points. Then I take these and write a second version along with the bullet points. This makes sure that my thoughts are structured in the end and that I have a clear storyline to follow.

After that, the last step is proofreading. As already said before, you can ask others to give you feedback or record yourself. Maybe use a grammar program to fix obvious mistakes you've overseen (helps a lot. especially if you're writing in a language that you don't use everyday) In this stage I mostly find some sentences that are hard to read / speak or just some wordings that repeat or don't quite sound right. So I go ahead, mark them and fix them.

And after that, I was by now always satisfied with what I wrote. This method might be a little overkill but it works for me and the most important thing you need to keep in mind: If you'd like to write something, it's supposed to be fun. No matter the way you do it. The process of creating an own story and slowly watching it come alive, that's the feeling that makes me happy and why I keep writing.

Hope you had fun reading and maybe I was able to give you one or another idea on how to write a story. If you want more tips, you can send me an ask or just comment on this post.

Okay, it's the next day by now but I'm done!

Okay, I stopped working on the previous sketch since something about it was not right. I'm not sure what but it felt weird and I didn't like it.

Instead I moved on to the next one. Sadly, I forgot to make a picture of the sketch before slightly erasing but I wanted to show it nethertheless. So, here's Eijiro in his hero costume

Can't wait to line and color it 😀

More training faces 😁 Finally, I managed to draw extreme up and down angles. Next up will be left and right 😃

I am also playing around with light and shadow and still need to figure out how I can make the eye area. I know it's somehow bent inwards but I couldn't quite get it yet. I guess there will be no way around as I draw left and right.

(so exited to see if I could make some crazy animation stuff with that knowlege 🤩)

I loooooove how that turned out ❤️